Alpha Phi Alpha - Membership - Notable Members

Notable Members

As BGLOs became a firm part of African American culture and Alpha Phi Alpha expanded to over 185,000 members, the fraternity was eager to list those who claimed affiliation. In the United States, among professional black males, the fraternity claims 60% of doctors, 75% of lawyers, 65% of dentists, and 95% of black colleges have or had Alpha Men as their president.

The fraternity's membership roster include activist Dick Gregory, Princeton Professor Cornel West, Congressman Charles B. Rangel, Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Samuel Pierce, entrepreneur John Johnson, athlete Mike Powell, musician Donny Hathaway, United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young, the first Premier of Bermuda Sir Edward T. Richards, and Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson.

Roland Burris became the only black member of the 2009 U.S. Senate when he assumed the seat vacated by President Barack Obama.

Alpha men were instrumental in the founding and leadership of the NAACP (Du Bois), People's National Party (PNP) Norman Manley, Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) (Jesse E. Moorland), UNCF (Frederick D. Patterson), and the SCLC (King, Walker and Jemison). The National Urban League has had eight leaders in its more than 100 years of existence; Six of its leaders are Alpha men: George Haynes, Eugene K. Jones, Lester Granger, Whitney Young, Hugh Price and Marc Morial.

We are counting on Alpha men to show their true colors.

From the ranks of the fraternity have come a number of pioneers in various fields. Honorary member Kelly Miller was the first African-American to be admitted to Johns Hopkins University. Todd Duncan was the first actor to play "Porgy" in Porgy and Bess. During the Washington run of Porgy and Bess in 1936, the cast—as led by Todd Duncan—protested the audience's segregation. Duncan stated that he "would never play in a theater which barred him from purchasing tickets to certain seats because of his race." Eventually management would give into the demands and allow for the first integrated performance at National Theatre.

Charles Houston, a Harvard Law School graduate and a law professor at Howard University, first began a campaign in the 1930s to challenge racial discrimination in the federal courts. Houston's campaign to fight Jim Crow Laws began with Plessy v. Ferguson and culminated in a unanimous Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

Ron Dellums' campaign to end the racist, apartheid policies of South Africa succeeded when the House of Representatives passed Dellums' anti-apartheid Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act calling for a trade embargo against South Africa and immediate divestment by American corporations.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." The Presidential Medal of Freedom, designed to recognize individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors", has been awarded to many members including Edward Brooke and William Coleman. The Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award of the United States Congress was awarded to Jesse Owens and Vice President Hubert Humphrey. The Spingarn Medal, awarded annually by the NAACP for outstanding achievement by a Black American, has been awarded to brothers John Hope Franklin, Rayford Logan and numerous fraternity members.

Premier Norman Manley was a Rhodes Scholar (1914), awarded annually by the Oxford based Rhodes Trust on the basis of academic achievement and character. Randal Pinkett, Andrew Zawacki, and Westley Moore are other Rhodes Scholar recipients.

A number of buildings and monuments have been named after Alpha men such as the Eddie Robinson Stadium, Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, Whitney Young Memorial Bridge, and the W. E. B. Du Bois library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The United States Postal Service has honored fraternity members W. E. B. Du Bois, Duke Ellington, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Paul Robeson and Whitney Young with a commemorative stamp in their Black Heritage Stamp series.